A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... a group of desperate rebel birds faced off against a galactic menace: the Empire’s evil Pigtroopers!...

As Thanksgiving draws near, we’re hearing a lot of talk about birds–the kind that wind up on our dinner table, and the irate kind that we fling into stacks of pigs. Earlier this week, App Annie Analytics distributed data indicating that Angry Birds Star Wars is already on track to be this year’s most popular Thanksgiving app.

What’s that mean, exactly? Well, it means your relatives may actually gobble about the game at the dinner table on Thursday, which beats being grilled about your bleak career and/or relationship status.

Angry Birds Star Wars launched on November 8. The game has since hit the top download spot on the App Store and Google Play. It also currently occupies the App Store’s top two spots for revenue (for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad), and is Google Play’s tenth best earner.

If you live on a landmass on planet Earth, you probably have a Starbucks within spitting distance of your home. CNET reports that this week the ubiquitous coffee chain is offering up Angry Birds Star Wars for free through their Pick of the Week promotion.

The twist is that Starbucks has done away with physical cards to give away their weekly free apps, and instead offers them through the Starbucks App, which you can download here. That means you don’t even have to go to a Starbucks to grab their game of the week. All you have to do is open the app, go to the “Messages” tab, and download the game. It’s that easy.

Angry Birds Star Wars combines two blockbuster franchises: The 35-year-old Star Wars universe, and the much newer Angry Birds games and characters. Angry Birds Star Wars has the familiar Angry Birds gameplay that has defined this mobile gaming generation, with pick-up-and-play appeal, destructive physics, and lots of levels. But it also uses the characters, sound effects, and Force powers of the Star Wars universe, which make it feel like more than just another Angry Birds installment.

Not only is Angry Birds Star Wars an App Store best-seller, but it also does justice to the two properties. Now that the Star Wars license has been acquired by Disney, maybe we’ll see the developers at Disney Mobile put out more great Star Wars iOS games in 2013. We already know that Rovio is working on an animated Angry Birds movie for 2016, so more big-name tie-ins seem likely. Angry Birds Star Wars may just be the first in a new, epic series.

By this point, fans know what to expect from a new Angry Birds game. You’ll get a bunch of levels where you fling birds at flimsy structures to kill pigs. The presentation will be playful enough that you’ll forgive the physics engine when it doesn’t cooperate with your plans. Angry Birds Star Wars delivers exactly that, with a helping hand from everyone’s favorite space epic.

Smells like bacon.

In a very basic form, the game follows the story of Star Wars, taking you from the deserts of Tatooine, to outer space, the Death Star, and beyond. The game comes with 40 Tatooine levels, 40 Death Star levels, and 11 bonus levels. It also contains 40 Dagobah levels, but they’re locked behind a paywall. Rovio, the developer, promises a Hoth level pack will be available soon as a free update.

When you’re on a planet, traditional Angry Birds physics hold true, with gravity curving the trajectory of your flings. When in space, the levels act just like they do in Angry Birds Space, so unless you enter a gravity bubble, you’ll drift in a straight line.

An army of Obi-Wans.

Most of the main characters appear as you play through the levels, and they show up exactly where they should in the story line. For instance, you don’t get access to the Han Solo bird until you reach the Cantina on Tatooine. Each character also has a special ability that’s true to the movies. When your bird is airborne and you tap the screen, Obi-Wan uses the force, Han shoots his blaster, R2-D2 shocks nearby enemies, and Luke swings his lightsaber– but only after Obi-Wan gives it to him.

When you get in a pinch, instead of the Mighty Eagle, you earn a limited number of Millennium Falcons to rein death on hapless imperial swine. Star Wars music and sound effects also fill the game’s score, which is sure to bring a smile to all the fans.

Yo yo yo yo yo yo-dah.

But mostly this feels like an Angry Birds game, so if there’s something that bugs you about any of the other games, it’ll probably bug you here, too. For us, we could do without the drifting camera that insists on focusing on either the pigs or the birds, but not the happy medium in between. We’re also not thrilled to hear the constant squawks and snorts from the characters when you idle on a level. But those complaints are small potatoes compared to the fun we had playing the game.

Just as we expected, Angry Birds Star Wars is a delight. It takes lots of inspiration from the Star Wars universe and integrates it seamlessly into the Angry Birds template. It doesn’t revolutionize the Angry Birds series, but should certainly satisfy fans of either franchise, provided you’re not suffering from Angry Birds or Star Wars fatigue.

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